


Until We Become Dust

by GrossZombie



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Cute, Dorks in Love, F/M, Frisk's soul has DETERMINATION and PATIENCE, Gen, Marriage Proposal, Romance, Sans Has Healed, Sans Has Issues, Short & Sweet, puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:55:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21893242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrossZombie/pseuds/GrossZombie
Summary: Dropping to a knee had so many different meanings. No matter how much they loved one another, Frisk never once imagined him dropping to his knees meant anything other than a disaster. He did like to prove her wrong.
Relationships: Frisk & Sans (Undertale), Frisk/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	Until We Become Dust

**Author's Note:**

> So I got this prompt book for creative writing by Robin Wood, a romance prompt book, and holy moly the first picture prompt just stuck with me. In fact, several of the prompts stuck with me so I have a lot of things planned. This is actually a pairing I have only recently discovered but I've fallen madly in love with.
> 
> I doubt I stuck with characterization but I honestly don't care! This is practice for a much larger story I've been planning, so I'll see how this goes.

Despite having lived on the surface for many years, both before and after her twelve-month foray Underground, Frisk had never been to the beach in her whole life. There wasn’t much that remained in her memory of what came before she fell beneath Mt. Ebbot but she liked to think that something like this would have stuck within her mind regardless of any type of amnesia. The air was gentle, sending her shoulder-length hair into a whipped up frenzy despite any attempts at calming the mess, and the gentle gurgle of waves was such a pleasant sound whenever she closed her eyes just to exist in the moment. 

It was times and experiences like this one that made her wonder how anyone could tell her humans were superior in any way. What kind of human parents simply never looked for their child? Didn’t allow their child to live a life of freedom? Frisk did not know any of these answers, had never had the nerve to ask any human, and she could not honestly say she wanted to know beyond an idle fancy. Everyone wanted to know where they came from so she excused it as something of that likeness and never tried to dwell on it overmuch. Monsters had saved her just as much as she had saved them and there existed nothing inside of her that would have it any other way. In every way, except the physical, she felt more kinship with monsters and even the physical aspect was pretty close, insomuch as she had the same general shape and proportions as many monsters she had met.

Her honey gaze flicked across the horizon, settling on the scene of her family and friends with such a deep-rooted satisfaction she couldn’t fight the curling of her lips.

There was Undyne, head tossed back with laughter and scarlet hair unbound and wild with whatever shenanigans she’d gotten caught up in this time. Both of her arms were half raised, forearms parallel to her head and small monsters hanging from her biceps with their legs flailing in the air and laughter ringing in the air. She was a relaxed sight of striking blue scales against the red two-piece swimming suit that Frisk had gotten her as a gift. The once fierce Captain of the Royal Guard was so carefree in moments like these, no less frightening to those that sought to cause harm but so gentle and caring with monsters that it warmed Frisk’s SOUL. Nearby Undyne was Alphys, wearing a white one-piece swimming suit and stifling a giggle behind one hand while her eyes were filled with such warm affection for the blue-skinned monster that anyone could tell how in love she was with Undyne. Toriel was trying hard not to laugh at Asgore, who was fruitlessly attempting to protect a pathetic sandcastle from the siege a couple of smirking monsters. The once King and Queen of monsters had come a long way since the Underground, at least being able to civilly speak to one another, but Toriel still had a lot to forgive and Asgore was learning patience. Lesser Dog was frolicking in the sand like a puppy, much to the amusement of all other canine monsters.

All of them, the freed victims of human greed and fear, made every hoop she had to jump through worth it.

Frisk had originally been very hesitant about the offered position as Ambassador to monsters. Toriel had simply mentioned it as a possibility, one that Asgore had latched onto with the desperation of someone still madly in love. She’d been given the choice, it was always about choices, and she had been given all the time she’d need to make that choice. There had been so many that had wanted her to become their champion among the humans but she had sought out the one monster that had never forced his wants upon her. She still remembered meeting Sans in Snowdin, watching Papyrus work in a frenzy to prepare to move to the surface, and she’d cherished his advice. In the end, the choice would always be her own and she could have as much time as she needed so she buckled down and learned all she could to help. A year had already been spent beating the odds, what was a few more to help achieve true freedom for the once locked away inhabitants of the Underground?

She scanned the beach again, inordinately pleased with what she had accomplished. It wasn’t much to the humans, of course, but monsters had always been amazing at taking what they were given and advancing with gusto and joy. This span of ocean and sand had once been full of death and garbage, the cruelty of humans obvious upon every inch, and the forest situated half a mile back from the ocean hadn’t been much to look at originally. Humans had thought they were giving the dregs to her people but everything was much more beautiful now than any area designated for humans.

_ Monsters _ , she mused,  _ were unbelievably good at turning the tide on a bad circumstance. _

She was pulled from her ponderings by the subtle sound of sand shifting over a hard, smooth surface and glanced from the corner of her eye to see who had come to pay her a visit in her claimed section of beach. First, she noticed the iconic pink slippers that no amount of time could remove from her memory. They were completely demolished by the sand, sunk into the mounds and lost to any future use. Frisk made a mental note that she would buy another pair the next time she found herself among human shops, something close to what he currently wore but with a much thicker bottom so he could drag his feet with some comfort. Sans’ feet may have been covered but the grains had managed to find their way into his bones and the grin on his face was just slightly strained when she perused his face.

The surface had been good to Sans. He was still an absolute lazybones, no scenery change was going to make that any different, but he was finally beginning to realize that all the RESETs and the death, that was all done. Frisk wasn’t going to spontaneously decide to RESET once again. Not after she had finally done it right. No more GENOCIDE runs. Everyone had made it to the surface, down to the last froggit and up to King Asgore himself. The skeleton had been the most resistant to settling into life on the surface, stuck in thinking that they would be subject to a RESET at any time. Frisk had made it a personal mission to get Sans comfortable on the surface, to finally allow him to realize that life was going on. Every day was new and he had finally found his niche in this new world that he had found himself in.

Sans’ newfound love for surface life had also opened his eyes to other kinds of love, a whole world different than the LOVE he had once explained to her when she’d been new to the Underground. One of the first acts of love he had performed was sitting down with Toriel and telling new jokes, not the script that he had once followed day after day from outside of a door. The joy on her mother’s face had been the first sure sign that Frisk was making a bigger difference among the monsters than she had originally thought she was. Papyrus had also benefitted from this new turn, she had seen him sitting silently while Sans had babbled on and on about whatever had been holding them apart-it had been obvious that Sans was uncomfortable too, his posture had screamed  _ defensive _ and  _ frightened _ . But Pap was a good brother and an even better individual and he’d gathered the shorter skeleton against his ribs and spoke quietly for the first time since Frisk had known him. There had been countless small changes too, simple things that Frisk seemed to be the only one to notice.

Less coffee drank in the wee hours of the morning after a nightmare had yanked him ruthlessly awake, RESETs haunting his mind. Sans did not drink coffee at all anymore and Frisk still smiled into her tea every time he joined her for a relaxing sit-down. Sans didn’t hold himself back as much anymore. He joked, he punned, and he had a more easy-going smile on his face. The number of times that something sparked his magic had decreased as well, the surface having little use for the Judge of the monsters.

But the biggest, newest change had been how Sans approached  _ her _ now.

In the past, Sans had always been like a big brother that held her at arm’s length no matter what the two of them went through together. She was always just ‘kid’ or ‘buddy’ and never referred to by name, something that hadn’t bothered her until they were on the surface. Alphys had claimed that Sans probably still saw her as a child because to deal with the RESETs his mind had to see everything as linear, he might not have even noticed that she was aging and changing because he was still expecting to wake up in the Underground. When he did notice that years had gone by, shortly after his joking had picked up with Toriel again, Frisk had been confused by the way that his face had gone faintly blue and he’d backpedaled away from her so fast he’d ended up bumping into the couch and climbing over the back cushions. Combined with his stuttering, Frisk had been so concerned that she’d been frozen in place and then she’d felt horrible for the way she’d practically ran him out of the room.

Since coming to the surface Frisk had experienced much but she had never been interested in relationships so she’d been in the dark for several weeks until Undyne had seen another instance of Frisk’s very presence chasing Sans away. Undyne and Alphys had done wonders towards introducing Frisk to the world of attraction (that was something that still left Frisk flushed with mortification, even worse than Toriel’s introduction to puberty once it came to light that Frisk was a late bloomer). She would never have noticed that she’d bloomed into an attractive (at least to some people) individual. Frisk was no model. She was short, a little on the pudgy side, and her style of dress leaned heavily towards stripes and baggy clothing that was fun to laze about in. Human men did not seem to find her very attractive.

Heh, skeletons must just love that she had more meat on her bones.

Persuing Sans had been completely on her, once she’d gotten over the internal search that had revealed her feelings. She’d been relentless in her constant pursuit of even just having things go back to the way they had been, gnawing away at the distance between them like a dog with a bone. Then, one day, she had finally just flopped on the couch between Papyrus and Sans. Frisk had been exhausted, on the verge of tears after hearing nothing but insults against monsters in a meeting, and had wrapped her arms around her knees to take up as little space as possible. It became a more recent thing that Papyrus would comfort her while Sans fled the very sight of her but she’d found herself held against his ribcage, breathing in the smell of ketchup and magic (he must have taken a shortcut recently).

_ Success. _

They didn’t speak of it, of course. At least not initially. Sans was still healing from what he had seen and done during the RESETs and Frisk still had a lot to do among humans before she could even think of a personal life. On top of that, they weren’t in any hurry to define what they were and wanted to be. Humans and monsters had not mixed in such a way in the memory of anyone that lived in the Underground, Sans didn’t want anyone to hate her for how they developed. And there was no guarantee their love would ever have been romantic.

It hadn’t stayed ambiguous for very long, however. Sans had kissed her first after a particularly nasty meeting that had held her up for a good few hours, taking her entirely by surprise and looking far too pleased with her squeak of shock. It had been sweet and chaste, his teeth pressing against her lips for a beat before his magic had cushioned her flesh and sent a tingle down to her toes. Frisk hadn’t even been able to grab for his hood before he was pulling back with a low rumble of laughter, eye lights huge and shaped into twin hearts within the deep sable of his eye sockets. The sight had caused her breath to freeze in her lungs, his eyes speaking more than his voice ever could about what he wanted from her. Their second kiss had been her own, eager hands snatching at his hoodie and pulling him close so she could pepper his face with all the love and affection she held within her SOUL.

Frisk had learned that she needed to be patient with Sans more than anyone. DETERMINATION may have colored her soul but there was a subtle line of cyan across her soul after so many years spent fostering patience with humans and monsters alike. She knew that she had done a lot of harm to him while possessed by Chara, GENOCIDE runs being her biggest shame, so Frisk had only ever done what she knew Sans wanted. Hand holding, snuggling on the couch while they watched TV, and stolen kisses that never went beyond the press of lips to bone or magic. Every new step, every new allowance, was a small victory and allowed the skeleton to unwind that tiny bit more.

Until Frisk could lay atop Sans, the two of them zipped up in his hoodie and propped up against his headboard. She advanced with her kisses, laying to rest any fear that she was only with Sans because she wanted to prove a point to other humans. Her affection was displayed in front of anyone and everyone. He was just as likely to get smooched in front of nobody at all as he was when they were around a crowd. And he proved, in a moment of hilarity and awkwardness, that skeletons were even capable of the same intimacy humans would lewdly claim she’d miss out on without a human boyfriend.

She was once more pulled from her internal musings by movement from his direction, his feet scuffing at the ground. He didn’t drop to the ground beside her, grabbing her hands instead and pulling her to her feet. Curious, Frisk went along with what he wanted from her and found herself looking into the gentle glow of his eye lights. While she was no giant and he was very short, Frisk had at most an inch on Sans. They were at the perfect height for her to press a kiss against the ridge above his nose, right between his eyes. He went slightly cross-eyed to keep her in sight but the grin that settled on his face was devoted and caring. One of her favorite discoveries had been just how much Sans loved the small kisses she gave him on random parts of his face, not a one demanding anything. Considering who his brother was, who his friends were and how openly caring monsters could be, Sans almost seemed starved for attention sometimes.

“Want to race to the water?” she queried, eyes narrowing in pleasure and lips curled into a constant smile. “I bet I can _ beach _ you to it.”

“heh. what the  _ shell _ would i do without you?”

They laughed together, her forehead meeting his and her eyes sliding closed. Nothing else mattered so long as she could just stay like this for as long as she wanted or until everything else turned to dust around them. His phalanges curled around her hands, sliding into the space between her fingers with all the ease of familiarity. She breathed in the ocean air, tasting salt and magic while the distant laughter rang clearly in her ears. Sans shuffled nervously in front of her, drawing her eyes open, and Frisk flinched when she saw Sans dropping to his knees.

Immediately, her mind scrambled for what she might have done to harm him. Sans once had the lowest HP of any monster in the Underground and she didn’t want to watch his dust scatter in the wind, ever. His face was flushed a very pretty shade of blue, eyes heart-shaped and her heart lurched inside her chest when Sans produced a small red box. Frisk’s lips parted, soundless excitement flooding her with determination and pure  _ joy _ .

“so...humans have different practices than monsters,” he pointed out, fiddling with whatever was in the box. “a ring didn’ feel right and ya already got a necklace, pretty one too. so…”

He produced something a bracelet that carried the soft blue glow of his magic on a few charms, the metal looking bone white with stones of various colors. His bones rattled, nerves obvious, as he slipped it onto her wrist and the magic that went into creating it warmed against her skin. Her bottom lip pulled in between her teeth, tears beginning to gather on her lashes. Frisk knew what he meant. Monsters didn’t go out of their way to propose marriage, it was meant to be a private adventure the pair undertook and when they finally felt ready they would announce it to anyone verbally. Sans was paying homage to her humanity, giving her what he thought any girl would want, but he was also doing one of the things he detested.

Making a promise.

“Yes!” she cried, throwing her arms around his shoulders and tackling him into the sand. Her lips pressed against his teeth and cheekbones over and over, face flush a pretty rose with her enthusiasm. She chanted her agreement for several moments, only pulling back so she didn’t cry all over Sans’ face. Everyone else was crowded close, cheering for the pair of them and her heart and SOUL felt so full she couldn’t understand it.

“I didn’t need any human custom, Sans,” she hiccuped, shoving her palms into her eyes. But she was smiling. “Just you. All I want is you. Whatever you want to give me. Until both of us turn into dust.”

In his answering smile, SOUL pulsing enough that even she could feel it, Frisk saw eternity looking back at her.


End file.
